The British Herpetological Society

The Herpetological Journal is the Society's prestigious quarterly scientific journal. Articles are listed in Biological Abstracts, Current Awareness in Biological Sciences,Current Contents, Science Citation Index, and Zoological Record.

 ISSN 0268-0130

2021 Impact Factor from Clarivate for the Herpetological Journal is 1.194, an increase of 0.332 from 2020.


pdf 05. The identity and probable origin of the Hemidactylus geckos of the Maldives

565 downloads

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.33256/hj29.4.230236

pp. 230-236

Authors: Ishan Agarwal, Daniel Jablonski & Aaron M Bauer

Abstract: The Maldives are coral reef islands of Holocene origin with no endemic terrestrial herpetofauna. The few species that have been reported from the region have affinities with Sri Lanka, south and south-east Asia, and are considered relatively recent introductions by humans. Recent collections of Hemidactylus geckos from the Maldives allowed us to identify and reconstruct the probable origin of this genus on the islands. We combine mitochondrial DNA (ND2) sequence data for the new collections with published sequences to reconstruct evolutionary relationships. The two species of Hemidactylus in the Maldives are H. frenatus and H. parvimaculatus, with affinities to south-east Asia and Sri Lanka, respectively. Suggestive of multiple introductions, each species included multiple haplotypes, only one of which was previously recorded (in Sri Lanka); other haplotypes showed similarities to records from south-east Asia. Unravelling the colonisation patterns of house geckos in the Maldives requires a more complete knowledge of the natural variation across the range of the widely distributed source species.

Keywords: Hemidactylus brookii; Hemidactylus frenatus; Hemidactylus parvimaculatus; human commensal; India; Sri Lanka

Download Access:

The latest 8 issues can be downloaded when logged in with a Herpetological Journal subscription membership.

Individual articles can be purchased for download.

Older issues and occasional Open Access articles are available for public download

Submissions:

For further information and submission guidelines please see our Journal Instructions to Authors

pdfBHS Ethics Policy

IMPORTANT NOTE - JUNE 2020

Please note that as from Volume 31 Number 1 (January 2021) on, the Herpetological Journal will be available as an online publication only - the last print edition will be Volume 30 Number 4.   

Aligning with this change, it is now no longer possible to purchase a subscription that includes a print copy of the HJ.  All members who have existing HJ print subscriptions that remain active as at end June 2020 will receive the full four 2020 print editions.  New subscribers or renewals after this time will only have option to subscribe to the online only subscription package.  Subscription pricing has been amended to reflect the content changes.